Who in SC2 can still make it to BlizzCon 2019

Sep 18, 2019

Updated: Oct 21, 2019

Who in SC2 can still make it to BlizzCon 2019

Global Final of StarCraft II World Championship Series — WCS — will be held on BlizzCon. And even though round-of-16 will take place a week before the actual Blizzard’s exhibition, they usually call it just ‘BlizzCon’ to keep in simple.

So who will play at that ‘BlizzCon’ one? We’ll tell you.

Let’s take a quick look at the qualification system.

The ecosystem of StarCraft II is split into two regions: WCS Korea and WCS Circuit — pretty much the rest of the world.

We say pretty much because if you read the WCS rules carefully, you will notice that some countries are missing. That is due to the American laws where Blizzard located. They never highlight it, but yeah, if you are from Iran — unlucky.

Now both ‘regions’ have their qualifiers to the Global Finals:

WCS Circuit consists of 4 seasons (in 2019 they are called Winter, Spring, Summer, and Fall)

There is one global event of IEM Katowice where everyone may participate

In 2019, they also squeezed in ASUS Assembly. It was open for everyone, but only Circuit players gained WCS points there.

Now, what the WCS points stand for?

There are two ways of qualifying to BlizzCon. First, winning a major event — WCS, IEM, or GSL — instantly guarantees a seed. Second, there is a WCS Ranking system.

Top-8 players from WCS Circuit and top-8 players of WCS Korea will go to BlizzCon. Those will be players to win majors, and the rest will be selected using the WCS ranking.

Mind that there will be a hard seeding system in the Ro.16, so two Koreans and two non-Koreans in each group. But of course, players from the same region can face each other in the playoff if they will advance accordingly. That is why Koreans play vs. non-Koreans on BlizzCon sometimes.

Who will go to BlizzCon 2019

As WCS Circuit concluded, participants from the non-Korean StarCraft II scene finalized. Here is the ranking:

Serral (Z) — 10.200 points and a seed (WCS Spring, WCS Fall)

Reynor (Z) — 7.365 points and a seed (WCS Winter, WCS Summer)

Neeb (P) — 5.550 points

SpeCial (T) — 3.825 points

TIME (T) — 3.165 points

HeroMarine (T) — 2.980 points

Elazer (Z) — 2.660 points

ShoWTimE (P) — 2.585 points

WCS Korea is still going on, and there are two events to finish: semifinals and a final in GSL Season 3, and then GSL Super Tournament 2. Currently, Korean standings look as follows:

Dark (Z) — 9.375 points and a seed (GSL Season 2)

Trap (P) — 7.050 points

Classic (P) — 6.800 points

Maru (T) — 6.575 points and a seed (GSL Season 1)

soO (Z) — 5.525 points and a seed (IEM Katowice)

herO (P) — 4.175 points

Stats (P) — 4.150 points

Dear (P) — 3.725 points

Of non-winners of majors, only Trap and Classic have secured their spots with mere WCS points so far. Rumors on the street say that Classic won’t be able to go to BlizzCon due to his military service — but there is no official confirmation to this. So there will be one more GSL champion, but it’s very likely for Dark or Maru to win one more season. If it happens, six players will be determined by the WCS Ranking.

It can still change significantly because top-6 to 8 players (herO, Stats, and Dear) didn’t make it to the GSL playoff, while TY, Ragnarok, Zest, and Rogue did. Rogue is still in business and can even win a GSL first time in his career, but the real drama will happen in the GSL Super Tournament.

It will be a tournament offering 7.500 WCS points in total for 16 players qualified: 1.500 to the winner, 1.050 to the runner-up, and 675 to the 3rd and 4th places. Because of this, the road is still open for as many as 16 players:

Rogue (Z) — 3.675 points

TY (T) — 3.050 points

Hurricane (P) — 2.925 points

Ragnarok (Z) — 2.875 points

GuMiho (T) — 2.800 points

Zest (P) — 2.600 points

Solar (Z) — 2.525 points

PartinG (P) — 2.450 points

PartinG and Hurricane are less likely to make it considering their current shape and also a current StarCraft II meta, but others can do it, and especially Rogue, Solar, and maybe Zest too. So after 2018 where we had sOs and Solar fighting for the last BlizzCon spot in the semifinals of GSL Super Tournament, we will have another episode at the beginning of October 2019. And if you are going to bet on GSL, mind such factor as BlizzCon motivation because it can make a real impact on preparation amount and so on the matches outcome!

Group Stage seeding at BlizzCon 2019

Groups of the Ro.16 are pre-determined based on the ranking. Mind that the Korean ranking still not finalized at the moment.

It is yet to predict the KR seedings because even in the top positions, there may be swaps if Dark won’t just win it all. We will know the final seeding after the end of GSL Super Tournament 2, and then we will come back to you with the updated. Bookmark us and stay tuned!